This invention relates generally to games and educational devices of various kinds and, in particular, to chance and skill, card and board electronic games having an objective of matching a known or unknown number, word, position, etc., e.g., "Bingo", mazes, puzzles, "war" games, and the like.
Heretofore, many electronic devices have been provided for playing a variety of chance and skill games with the help of prepunched cards bearing information relevant to the game. Some examples of this type of device are U.S. Pat. No. 3,734,507 Hillman et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 3,559,992 Kramer. However, these games apparata do not make use of state-of-the-art electronic technology, in particular, microprocessors.
Microprocessors are widely used in many electronic games including card and board games such as "Bridgemaster" disclosed in IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 17, No. 11, page 27. However, this apparatus is limited to a specific application and does not provide for selection of random numbers which are necessary for playing a variety of chance and skill games.
Other electronically controlled game devices including certain provisions for generating of pseudo-random data have been provided, e.g., the U.S. Pat. No. 3,653,026 Hurley but this type of device does not have means for reading game cards.
The very same deficiency, i.e., the inability to read-in any information from game cards seriously restricts application of many other state-of-the-art electronic games like the U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,638 Morrison, et al. This type of apparata can hardly be implemented as hand-held games.